Floyd testifies in racketeering trial (GALLERY)

Former Crestview police Maj. Joseph Floyd testifies Wednesday during his racketeering trial at the Okaloosa County Courthouse in Crestview.

DEVON RAVINE | Daily News

By TOM McLAUGHLIN / Daily News

Published: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 at 09:50 PM.

CRESTVIEW — Former Maj. Joseph Floyd on Wednesday told his side of the many stories of criminal misdeeds prosecutors say he committed during a five-year run as head of the Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit.

Then he faced a grueling cross-examination from prosecutor Russ Edgar, who questioned him for about five hours.

Floyd, who is charged with racketeering, took the stand at 8:30 a.m. and was released at 7:10 p.m. Okaloosa County Circuit Judge Michael Flowers told jurors he expected the case would be presented to them “for your consideration” sometime Thursday.

Floyd, who headed the Street Crimes Unit from 2007 until his 2012 termination and arrest, denied battering or assaulting any of the more than one dozen people Edgar has brought forward over the last week-and-a-half with tales that suggest otherwise.

He confessed “I did say some inappropriate things” to one man, Dustin Emerson, who Floyd exchanged words with on a street in Crestview.

“I had intended to ask him about what his intentions with threats he had made,” Floyd testified. “I told him ‘I heard you’ve been going around pointing a BB gun at police. Someone is going to kill your ass.’ ”

He defended his tasing of Reginald Singletary, a man he was trying to stop for running a stop sign on a bicycle.

Floyd testified, “I tried to pursue him on foot” and “hit him with a Taser” when he realized he couldn’t catch him.

Under Edgar’s cross-examination, Floyd also said he “may have” called Emerson a “punk (expletive)” and said something that could have been construed as a challenge to a fight.

Floyd also denied he had sexually battered a woman or fondled a fellow officer, as alleged in previous testimony. He did testify that he had made inappropriate comments to women, but never dangled employment or other police perks as a bribe for sex.

He further denied falsifying documents to get hired as a Crestview police officer and removing files from the Street Crimes Unit and other locations at the Police Department when he was being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Floyd also said he had little to do with an incident in which police officers went to the home of City Councilman Ben Iannucci and threatened the councilman’s estranged wife, Christina Iannucci, with arrest if she didn’t turn custody of the children over to her husband.

He said the custody order on which he sent officers to the Iannucci home looked valid to him, and he realized only later that it was unenforceable.

“It was a court order and had a judge’s signature,” he testified when questioned by his attorney, Barry Beroset.

He said he told the ranking Crestview officer on the scene to stand up to Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputies and enforce the document if it was legal to do so.

On cross-examination he acknowledged telling the officer, Lt. Jamie Grant, to tell Christina Iannucci, “give up the kids or go to jail.”

Edgar has alleged in the racketeering charge that Floyd established and operated a criminal enterprise through battery, assault, bribery extortion and official misconduct. He also is accused of making false official statements and tampering with witnesses and evidence.

Edgar’s cross-examination began when he asked Floyd if he had taken sensitive files from the Police Department. Floyd denied doing so.

However, he couldn’t deny documentation showing the he had failed to acknowledge two arrests, including one for resisting arrest and battery on a police officer, on his application for a job with the city.

“You don’t think it was important to put on an application for a law enforcement job that you were resisting arrest by a law enforcement officer?” Edgar asked.

Floyd said he had forgotten the incidents.

Edgar pushed Floyd for answers to testimony from other witnesses that he did not fully document the reasons he was fired by law enforcement agencies in Bay and Sarasota Counties.

Floyd denied numerous times that he ever improperly deployed his Taser. He denied having brought a naked Barbie doll to a city Police and Fire Department Christmas party, although he acknowledged handling the doll before the party and laughing about it at the party.

Floyd said witness Rachel Jordan had incorrectly testified that he had ordered her to purchase the doll, which was bought not long after charges of sexual battery against him had been dropped.

Floyd testified that he looked over fellow officers’ investigation reports, but never changed material facts, as he is charged with doing.

Floyd testified during defense questioning that fellow former officer Tim White’s testimony incorrectly stated that he had shot White with a Taser. He said he had pulled the
Taser during “horseplay” but did not shoot the 50,000-watt device.

“Is it your testimony Tim White is so dumb he wouldn’t know he’d been tased?” Edgar asked, referring to additional testimony from White that the Floyd had teased him by calling him stupid.

Floyd was forced to explain his rationale for using an assault rifle to make an arrest at a convenience store in the middle of the day, and was asked to answer the question: “You’re not allowed to pull guns on people and tell them to stay away from businesses, are you?”

Edgar also asked Floyd to explain why a woman who had testified she’d seen him brutally beat a man named Jamichael Ewing had agreed to take the stand on Ewing’s behalf but Patricia Beebe, who testified she saw Floyd do nothing wrong during the same incident, was not called to court.

CRESTVIEW — Former Maj. Joseph Floyd on Wednesday told his side of the many stories of criminal misdeeds prosecutors say he committed during a five-year run as head of the Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit.

Then he faced a grueling cross-examination from prosecutor Russ Edgar, who questioned him for about five hours.

Floyd, who is charged with racketeering, took the stand at 8:30 a.m. and was released at 7:10 p.m. Okaloosa County Circuit Judge Michael Flowers told jurors he expected the case would be presented to them “for your consideration” sometime Thursday.

Floyd, who headed the Street Crimes Unit from 2007 until his 2012 termination and arrest, denied battering or assaulting any of the more than one dozen people Edgar has brought forward over the last week-and-a-half with tales that suggest otherwise.

He confessed “I did say some inappropriate things” to one man, Dustin Emerson, who Floyd exchanged words with on a street in Crestview.

“I had intended to ask him about what his intentions with threats he had made,” Floyd testified. “I told him ‘I heard you’ve been going around pointing a BB gun at police. Someone is going to kill your ass.’ ”

He defended his tasing of Reginald Singletary, a man he was trying to stop for running a stop sign on a bicycle.

Floyd testified, “I tried to pursue him on foot” and “hit him with a Taser” when he realized he couldn’t catch him.

Under Edgar’s cross-examination, Floyd also said he “may have” called Emerson a “punk (expletive)” and said something that could have been construed as a challenge to a fight.

Floyd also denied he had sexually battered a woman or fondled a fellow officer, as alleged in previous testimony. He did testify that he had made inappropriate comments to women, but never dangled employment or other police perks as a bribe for sex.

He further denied falsifying documents to get hired as a Crestview police officer and removing files from the Street Crimes Unit and other locations at the Police Department when he was being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Floyd also said he had little to do with an incident in which police officers went to the home of City Councilman Ben Iannucci and threatened the councilman’s estranged wife, Christina Iannucci, with arrest if she didn’t turn custody of the children over to her husband.

He said the custody order on which he sent officers to the Iannucci home looked valid to him, and he realized only later that it was unenforceable.

“It was a court order and had a judge’s signature,” he testified when questioned by his attorney, Barry Beroset.

He said he told the ranking Crestview officer on the scene to stand up to Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputies and enforce the document if it was legal to do so.

On cross-examination he acknowledged telling the officer, Lt. Jamie Grant, to tell Christina Iannucci, “give up the kids or go to jail.”

Edgar has alleged in the racketeering charge that Floyd established and operated a criminal enterprise through battery, assault, bribery extortion and official misconduct. He also is accused of making false official statements and tampering with witnesses and evidence.

Edgar’s cross-examination began when he asked Floyd if he had taken sensitive files from the Police Department. Floyd denied doing so.

However, he couldn’t deny documentation showing the he had failed to acknowledge two arrests, including one for resisting arrest and battery on a police officer, on his application for a job with the city.

“You don’t think it was important to put on an application for a law enforcement job that you were resisting arrest by a law enforcement officer?” Edgar asked.

Floyd said he had forgotten the incidents.

Edgar pushed Floyd for answers to testimony from other witnesses that he did not fully document the reasons he was fired by law enforcement agencies in Bay and Sarasota Counties.

Floyd denied numerous times that he ever improperly deployed his Taser. He denied having brought a naked Barbie doll to a city Police and Fire Department Christmas party, although he acknowledged handling the doll before the party and laughing about it at the party.

Floyd said witness Rachel Jordan had incorrectly testified that he had ordered her to purchase the doll, which was bought not long after charges of sexual battery against him had been dropped.

Floyd testified that he looked over fellow officers’ investigation reports, but never changed material facts, as he is charged with doing.

Floyd testified during defense questioning that fellow former officer Tim White’s testimony incorrectly stated that he had shot White with a Taser. He said he had pulled the
Taser during “horseplay” but did not shoot the 50,000-watt device.

“Is it your testimony Tim White is so dumb he wouldn’t know he’d been tased?” Edgar asked, referring to additional testimony from White that the Floyd had teased him by calling him stupid.

Floyd was forced to explain his rationale for using an assault rifle to make an arrest at a convenience store in the middle of the day, and was asked to answer the question: “You’re not allowed to pull guns on people and tell them to stay away from businesses, are you?”

Edgar also asked Floyd to explain why a woman who had testified she’d seen him brutally beat a man named Jamichael Ewing had agreed to take the stand on Ewing’s behalf but Patricia Beebe, who testified she saw Floyd do nothing wrong during the same incident, was not called to court.